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Clearing the air about fracturing

I have been working in the oil industry of North Dakota for one year and I wanted to write and clear up any lies about hydraulic fracturing.

The company I work for has been doing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) since the 1940s. Some of the untruths I have heard are that the fracking causes water well contamination, and that fracking causes earthquakes. A well cannot be fracked unless it is sealed, the steep pipe is all joined together and cemented in place, the fracking takes place two to three miles deep in the earth. Then pressure is applied at 10,000 psi. If the well does not hold pressure than it cannot be fracked. It is abandoned and repaired. So no fracking fluid leaks into ground water at all. The ground water is up near the surface.

Another untruth is that fracking causes earthquakes. This is impossible because of the depth of the fracking. At that depth the shale rock would be pushed down into the earth’s core rather than up.

We use a small amount of chemical in fracking (1 percent of the total solution). Two chemicals are used: A friction reducer is added at the start of the zone to be fracked, it is an alcohol-based solution made up of primarily ethyl alcohol. This allows the sand and water solution to slide more easily into the shale formation.

At the end of the fracking a gel is added to the sand and water solution to make the sand stay in place in the shale formation.

Currently North Dakota is producing 700,000 barrels of crude daily. It is good that our country can produce its own oil and not rely on Mideast oil, where oil is causing so many wars.

Clearing the air about fracturing

I have been working in the oil industry of North Dakota for one year and I wanted to write and clear up any lies about hydraulic fracturing.

The company I work for has been doing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) since the 1940s. Some of the untruths I have heard are that the fracking causes water well contamination, and that fracking causes earthquakes. A well cannot be fracked unless it is sealed, the steep pipe is all joined together and cemented in place, the fracking takes place two to three miles deep in the earth. Then pressure is applied at 10,000 psi. If the well does not hold pressure than it cannot be fracked. It is abandoned and repaired. So no fracking fluid leaks into ground water at all. The ground water is up near the surface.

Another untruth is that fracking causes earthquakes. This is impossible because of the depth of the fracking. At that depth the shale rock would be pushed down into the earth’s core rather than up.

We use a small amount of chemical in fracking (1 percent of the total solution). Two chemicals are used: A friction reducer is added at the start of the zone to be fracked, it is an alcohol-based solution made up of primarily ethyl alcohol. This allows the sand and water solution to slide more easily into the shale formation.

At the end of the fracking a gel is added to the sand and water solution to make the sand stay in place in the shale formation.

Currently North Dakota is producing 700,000 barrels of crude daily. It is good that our country can produce its own oil and not rely on Mideast oil, where oil is causing so many wars.